Washington University School of Medicine operates a Diabetes Research and Training Center (DRTC) whose goals are to promote diabetes related research by operating Core Facilities to support established investigators, supporting new initiatives in diabetes research and operating a training facility for persons involved in diabetes research and patient care. Core Facilities are devoted to Clinical Research, Radioimmunoassay, Mass Spectrometry, Tissue Culture, Morphology, and Training and Translation. The Clinical Research Facility operates a patient registry consisting of over 400 diabetics who undergo a yearly in-hospital evaluation and are available for clinical studies. The Radioimmunoassay Facility provides assays for insulin, glucagon, growth hormone, prolactin, gastric inhibitory polypeptide, pancreatic polypeptide, cortisol and other hormones. Radioreceptor assays are available for other hormones. The Mass Spectrometry Facility supports analytical and metabolic turnover studies requiring gas chromatographic or mass spectrometry techniques. This Facility's present interests are in the measurement of sugar-alcohols in tissues and techniques for stable isotope turnover studies using C13, N15 and D20. The Tissue Culture Facility maintains cell lines of fibroblasts, pituitary cells, islet tissues, muscle cells and a variety of tumor cell lines. The Morphology Facility provides support for studies requiring electron microscopy or immunocytochemistry. The Training and Translation Facility operates on Education Center for professionals involved in diabetic patient care, an information distribution system, and works with governmental, professional and lay organizations in coordinating diabetes training. Research initiatives receiving DRTC support include studies of N-15 turnover, adrenergic pathophysiology in diabetes, an artificial endocrine pancreas, HLA associations in diabetes, radioreceptor hormone assays, role of calcium transport in hormone action, cloning of the fish insulin gene, use of home health aides in diabetes care, and assays for hemoglobin A1c.